I wait at the front door for the longest minute, knowing I should just go in and get it over with while at the same time wanting so very desperately to prolong any second I can where Klaus and Caroline isn't a possibility. I snort at my foolishness. Nothing I do can stop this now, they're both technically single and somewhat interested – a little bit of fairy lights and dancing can change 'somewhat interested' into 'interested' rather quickly. I know, I've seen it happen before.
My hand still lingers over the knob uncertainly.
I hear his approach much like a gust of wind – he must be using that unnatural vampire speed of his – but more than that I can hear the sigh of his breaths and the gentle swish of fabric against skin. My senses must be on high alert tonight, I haven't heard or experienced any of my senses this honed since I tracked down Lorentt. When was it? Two years ago? More? It feels like forever though.
The door swings open and I'm instantly enveloped in Klaus' scent; the lingering wisps of ink, old books and fire still clinging to him.
I try not to make my deep inhalation too obvious. I'm not too sure whether I fail or not, Klaus is too busy giving me a glare.
"Why the wait? Forgot how to open a door?"
Despite the baiting I can't find it in me to respond how he expects, how I would usually react. Instead, I shrug my shoulders slightly and push my way in past him. Waiting silently as he closes the door and turns to me, I keep facing the stairs. If I focus real hard I can almost see a shadow of Hayley's presence on the top step.
"What happened, Clearwater?"
"Clearwater," I snipe quietly and shake my head, more self-loathing than anything else. Finally I draw a breath, straighten my shoulders, "Caroline came by tonight and she invited us to some Christmas dance thing which I basically accepted for you, so you better not mind," I bite at my tongue before this can turn into incessant babbling.
Silence rings out between us and I hold my breath. I can feeling him standing behind me, his eyes boring holes into the back of my head, I try not to cringe.
"Did she mention what happened at the last one?"
Slowly I shake my head, although now my mind is brimming with images of Klaus and Caroline dancing, kissing, laughing. I really don't want to rip out my hair in front of Klaus.
"All right. If you plan on going, I'll escort you."
I turn, slightly in shock and partly in dazed wonder to thank him, or maybe to accuse him of using me to see Caroline. But when I turn he has already retreated back to his study, using that wonderful speed once again. For a moment I let his words sink in and try to convince myself that it's pointless trying to find any measure of affection in them. This is Klaus after all.
So gathering my wits, I head up the stairs ignoring the ghostly shadow of Hayley's presence, not wanting to think about it at that moment.
With one foot on the landing and a hand reached toward the banister, the world around me shivers with a resounding smash. My head turns toward the familiar echo of shattering wood. The study…
The forest reeks of damp moss and now blood. So much blood. And death. I reek of blood too, it's coating my face and neck, seeping into what used to be a white dress shirt. My hands are crimson too now. None of it is mine.
No, no, I'm not careless. Just angry. So damn angry that I'd rewind time and kill them all again and again and again. Until they stop looking surprised when I rip out their hearts, slit their throats, impale them with my sword. They shouldn't be fucking surprised. They should understand…it was their own faults.
Their own faults and Tyler's…
I ripped out Adrian's heart, somehow feeling the organ in my hand left me feeling nothing. I should have felt something, but, no, he deserved it. Just as Kimberley deserved to be backed against the cell bars, deserved to feel the cool steel slowly biting into her neck until blood splattered my hands and face.
They betrayed me!
White hot rage like molten lava seeps through me anew and the world seems to turn an odd haze of red as I trek.
I need more blood.
More death.
Kill the hybrids.
Kill Tyler.
Kill everyone.
I find myself back at the party; the snow still flurries here an innocent untainted white and echoes of Christmas carols fuel my hatred for the living.
Not enough darkness.
MORE!
Then I see her, Mrs Lockwood, sheriff, mother of the spawn ruining my life. The blood coating my skin crawls, begging for more, more, more…
She stumbles through the snow, quite a sight beneath the fairy lights with her daring purple dress and neatly combed hair. I can't wait to tear her limb from limb, to make her understand my agony, my wrath. No one betrays Niklaus Mikaelson! No one!
Not my very own family, flesh and blood of my flesh and blood.
Not the hybrids I created, strong and durable, better than their werewolf counterparts.
All anyone ever wanted to do was hurt me, ruin me, make me suffer. But it's their turn now. Their turn to lose and wither in agony now. My time of being the kicked dog is over. From now on, I'll be the fucking executioner. I'll bring the pain. I'll be the one deciding who gets to live or die.
"Tyler, honey, you're supposed to be my sober cap. I think I drank half the party." She settles down by the fountain, so blissfully innocent of her fate. Putting her phone away she combs her hair, relaxing into the position.
"Evening, Carol," I start, moving forward, emerging from the shadows, aware that even in this dim light she'll see the blood coating my face and shirt front. "You're looking for Tyler, I would like to know where I can find him myself."
"Klaus, please, don't hurt him." She pauses, shrugs her shoulders slightly and pulls that stupid pleading face humans usually have just before they die. Pathetic, how very pathetic…"He's my son, he is all I have."
"And you are all he has." I see the realisation cross her face, just the tiniest shift of her mouth and brows, the disbelief in her eyes. "There's a beautiful symmetry to that, don't you think?"
Carol Lockwood stares at me, her earlier fear larger now, shining beyond the dim fairy lights and her concern for Tyler. Still she lets out a cry when I grab her neck, her surprise at the action grates at my nerves. Her body twists under my commanding fingers and before she can take another breath her face is plunged under icy water. The fountain swallows up her earlier ease and blissful unawareness.
There's a sense of triumph feeling her whither, fighting to escape the watery death, when she'll never succeed. It makes my chest burn and my mind rush with whispers of darkness, familiar tinges of shadows creeping over me, begging me to do more than simply drown her. Perhaps showcase her corpse for Tyler to find, dig the dagger deeper and deeper until there's nothing left.
Water soaks my jacket sleeves as Mrs Lockwood fights, the sound of her watery shrieks like pleasant hums to the shadows. Finally her body stops jerking, arms floating up beside her prone body and I wait eagerly for something else, an extra bout, but it never comes. She's dead.
I don't feel the satisfaction I crave; I don't feel much really except for disgust. The amusement will only come once Tyler finds the bodies. Then I'll feel something, then I'll laugh in the face of his agony, then I'll be content to torture him to death.
I dislodge my fingers from her neck, strands of wet hair clinging to my skin as I back away. For another moment I stare, the water slowly settles down and in its glimmering surface I can see my own face. Still I feel nothing, the fury has not dissipated and I can see its influence in my eyes reflected back at me.
Turning, I head back whence I came, leaving Carol's dead body in the fountain, a broken doll beneath the Christmas decorations.
Jerking forward, I half fall to the ground, my knees hitting carpet and somewhere in the distance the smashing of wood continues. I gulp in desperate breaths, raising my hands to feel for any blood on my face – there's none but I continue to tremble.
"Klaus…" I breathe; eyes stinging as I recall the dead bodies, the blood, the darkness, the insatiable need for more. And the hatred, so much hatred, that it brings bitterness to my mouth. Body shaking, I force my way to my feet and turn toward the stairs, for a while watching the closed study door. Just then another crash sounds and I straighten my back, curl my trembling fingers and hurry down the stairs.
All right, just another note that this isn't following the timeline from the series (because I can't remember anything in sequence). Just note that in this story Caroline and Elena are still in HS and that whenever the hybrids died it was the year previous to this one. I had to rewatch the 'kill' scene on YouTube at least a million times for this and I'm still not happy with it, but my deadline has passed so…